The Diablo 3 Interview
on AusGamers is a lengthy conversation from GC 2008 in Leipzig with Jay
Wilson discussing Blizzard's upcoming action/RPG sequel. They talk about how the
RPG genre has changed since way back when Diablo II was released, Diablo II
features being retained for the new game, glorious loot, combating cheaters,
class struggles, and still more.

"If you compare the Diablo to Starcraft franchises, the asian market alone for Starcraft eclipses Diablo and Warcraft combined. Pulling people off of Starcraft just doesn't make sense"

Let's say this is true.

Scenario: WoW in Asia starts losing popularity, subscriptions and Net Profit is down in that territory.

This probably won't happen for awhile, why not wait on releasing Starcraft II till this starts happening. Will put a lot of smiles on Activizzards shareholders faces. From another point of view, why release Starcraft II while WoW IS still popular in Asia, why compete with your own successful IP. Asia is a special market, and people will cancel their WoW subscriptions to play it because Starcraft is a way of life in Asia. I think it's a good idea to release this beast at a later time, from a business standpoint. For now Blizzard has an expansion that will keep them going for the year. Diablo III should be next.

What I'm guessing is that a majority of SC2 is done but the remaining "skeleton" crew is there for balancing the three races/units, voiceacting, cinematics, etc. Having Zerg or whatever class be heavily overpowered upon shipping would make Korean Protoss and Terran players very, very angry. Probably angry enough to send Korean Ghosts to nuke the states cause of it.

If you compare the Diablo to Starcraft franchises, the asian market alone for Starcraft eclipses Diablo and Warcraft combined. Pulling people off of Starcraft just doesn't make sense Dagok. I could see engine wise Starcraft 2 is done, but content of the storymode is still a huge order to fill with cinematics, 3D models/sets for the other 2 races etc.

Ya got links for your reports?

Using a steering wheel on a Burnout game is like using the Space Shuttle controls to fly a kite.

Um Cutter... when was the last time Blizzard launched 2 products in a year, let alone had 3 known titles in the works at the same time?Hell they have said that Starcraft 2 (which was announced WAY before Diablo 3) wouldn't be out in 2008, so why would the 3rd project (which was recently announced) even come out this year let alone this month?

Using a steering wheel on a Burnout game is like using the Space Shuttle controls to fly a kite.